首页
登录
职称英语
Single mums are better at raising their kids than two parents—at least in the
Single mums are better at raising their kids than two parents—at least in the
游客
2023-12-24
22
管理
问题
Single mums are better at raising their kids than two parents—at least in the bird world. Mother zebra finches have to work harder and raise fewer chicks on their own, but they also produce more attractive sons who are more likely to get a mate.
The finding shows that family conflict is as important an evolutionary driving force as ecological factors such as hunting and food supply. With two parents around, there’s always a conflict of interests, which can have a detrimental effect on the quality of the offspring.
In evolutionary terms, the best strategy for any parent in the animal world is to find someone else to care for their offspring, so they can concentrate on breeding again. So it’s normal for parents to try to pass the buck to each other. But Ian Hartley from the University of Lancaster and his team wondered how families solve this conflict, and how the conflict itself affects the offspring.
To find out, they measured how much effort zebra finch parents put into raising their babies. They compared single females with pairs, by monitoring the amount of food each parent collected, and removing or adding chicks so that each pair of birds was raising four chicks, and each single mum had two--supposedly the same amount of work.
But single mums, they found, put in about 25 percent more effort than females rearing with their mate. To avoid being exploited, mothers with a partner hold back from working too hard if the father is being lazy, and it’s the chicks that pay the price. "The offspring suffer some of the cost of this conflict," says Hartley.
The cost does not show in any obvious decrease in size or weight, but in how attractive they are to the opposite sex. When the chicks were mature, the researchers tested the "fitness" of the male offspring by offering females their choice of partner. Those males reared by single mums were chosen more often than those from two-parent families.
Sexual conflict has long been thought to affect the quality of care given to offspring, says zoologist Rebecca Kilner at Cambridge University, who works on conflict of parents in birds. "But the experimental evidence is not great. The breakthrough here is showing it empirically."
More surprising, says Kilner, is Hartley’s statement that conflict may be a strong influence on the evolution of behaviour, clutch size and even appearance. "People have not really made that link," says Hartley. A female’s reproductive strategy is usually thought to be affected by hunting and food supply. Kilner says conflict of parents should now be taken into account as well. [br] According to the passage, in what way does family conflict affect the quality of the offspring?
选项
A、The young males get less care.
B、The young females will decrease in weight.
C、The offspring will become lazy fathers or mothers in the future.
D、The offspring will not get mature easily.
答案
A
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://tihaiku.com/zcyy/3299930.html
相关试题推荐
Asthenewgenerationofparents,millennialsrelymuchontheInternetforinfo
Asthenewgenerationofparents,millennialsrelymuchontheInternetforinfo
Asthenewgenerationofparents,millennialsrelymuchontheInternetforinfo
Asthenewgenerationofparents,millennialsrelymuchontheInternetforinfo
Asthenewgenerationofparents,millennialsrelymuchontheInternetforinfo
Asthenewgenerationofparents,millennialsrelymuchontheInternetforinfo
Organicfoodisconsideredbetterthanmedicinetokeeppeoplespiritualfitness
Organicfoodisconsideredbetterthanmedicinetokeeppeoplespiritualfitness
Organicfoodisconsideredbetterthanmedicinetokeeppeoplespiritualfitness
Organicfoodisconsideredbetterthanmedicinetokeeppeoplespiritualfitness
随机试题
Televisionnowplayssuchanimportantpartinmanypeople’slives.Itis【B1
TheDifferenceBetweenSpokenandWrittenEnglishI.Thedefinitionofspeecha
一切国家机关都必须以()为根本的活动准则,都没有超越它的特权,一切违反行为都应
与银行借款相比,下列各项中,不属于发行债券筹资特点的有( )。A.资本成本较高
患者有冠心病史5年。晨起因暴怒,出现心胸疼痛剧烈,如刺如绞,痛有定处,伴有胸闷、
小儿髓外造血表现为A.肝脾淋巴结肿大 B.黄骨髓参与造血 C.周围血象可见幼
胸胁刺痛,多见于()A.肝气郁滞 B.痰湿困阻 C.肝胆湿热 D
副作用的产生是由于A.患者的特异性体质 B.患者的肝肾功能不良 C.患者的遗
把下面的图形分为两类,使每一类图形都有各自的共同特征或规律,分类正确的一项是:
(2016年真题)关于施工文件归档的说法,正确的有( )。A.施工单位应在工程
最新回复
(
0
)